I read over the poll information and the American Thinker rebuttal. The numbers the American Thinker references for 2009 seem to be correct, but the breakdowns appear [to me] to be reasonably similar over the periods noted starting in Nov 2008, so I can't figure out where the information for their next paragraph comes from. Am I missing something (probable)?
In the 2008 election the spread between Democrats and Republicans was 6.5 percentage points not 18 and independents made up 22% of the vote not 26%.